Krystal And Saagar DEBATE SCOTUS Voting Right Act Decision
Breaking Points
0:00 We also wanted to make sure that we cover
0:02 this Supreme Court decision which I think could be very significant.
0:06 Uh let's put this up on the screen.
0:08 So this is a real curtailing of the um some aspects of the voting
0:14 rights act in particular the drawing
0:16 of these majority minority districts to make
0:19 sure there is black representation that's most
0:21 significant in the south and the Supreme
0:25 Court kind of split the diff or they tried to sort of split
0:29 the difference in terms of their decision but it still looks like the outcome
0:34 is going to be fairly significant in the ability of states and it
0:37 was Louisiana's uh uh map that was
0:39 being challenged in particular and the ability
0:41 of southern states to redraw their maps
0:44 and eliminate their majority minority districts.
0:47 So um the Cook Political Report analyzed what the impact would
0:51 be along with Larry Sabatau's Crystal Ball um which is published
0:55 by University of Virginia Center for Politics and they both estimated
0:59 that this could result in roughly seven House seats shifting to the GOP.
1:05 So, um, you know, the redistricting wars are fully on, launched,
1:09 of course, by Trump originally.
1:12 Um, you've had California and Virginia, I think a couple other blue states
1:16 that are redrawing their maps to optimize for Democrats.
1:19 There are some other states like Illinois is
1:21 one that hasn't gone yet that could do that.
1:23 Apparently, you know, there's a possible New York gerrymander.
1:26 So, there are some compensating moves that Democrats could make.
1:31 Um, but obviously this is a significant win for Republicans in terms
1:35 of trying to redraw the maps to be more favorable to them.
1:40 And it also, I mean,
1:40 in a lot of these states will effectively cement like one party control.
1:46 Um, in a lot of these states,
1:47 the only district that Democrats win are these majority
1:51 minority districts um that have been, you know,
1:54 have been protected by feel about it cuz on the merits,
1:57 it's a ridiculous policy because the policy
2:01 stems from the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
2:03 And not to get too granular because I spent a lot of time actually reading about
2:07 this this voting rights provision when I was
2:09 doing a lot of research on affirmative action.
2:11 Yeah, the principle of American juristprudence is that you have to prove intent.
2:16 Now, this voting rights act actually obiscates the proven racial discrimination
2:21 and assumes racial discrimination on the basis of something called dilution.
2:26 Dilution says that the mere presence of minority minority
2:30 populations there without representation is evidence of discrimination itself,
2:35 not that you have to prove said discrimination.
2:38 Now, if I put myself in the minds of a lawmaker 81 years ago,
2:43 literally when the law was passed,
2:44 I could understand that in the era of Jim Crow,
2:48 but 81 years later here in 202 or sorry,
2:52 61 years, I don't know why I said 81 years,
2:54 61 years later, uh I'm sorry, like that is a ludicrous proposition.
2:59 Like it is a total violation in my opinion of the equal protection clause.
3:03 And I would give, you know,
3:04 for all the liberals who are hyperventilating about this.
3:07 I live in Virginia, which is what, 54 45 in terms of Trump,
3:11 what did Virginia just do to our maps?
3:13 They just nuked all conservative representations.
3:16 Going to be a 10 to one in terms of Democrat uh to Republican.
3:20 I don't hear you uh crowing about my minority rights,
3:23 the my ability to represent myself or the dilutive effect
3:27 of me living in a D what plus 80, you know, city.
3:31 Like I I just think it's Look, I'm not trying to be glib,
3:35 but it's pretty obvious this is a black carveout from 1965,
3:40 which in my opinion totally violates spirit of the equal protection clause.
3:44 The Supreme Court, Justice Alo, you should read his decision.
3:47 What he said was that you have to prove racial discrimination.
3:53 And you can't assume murder.
3:55 You can't assume a tent in anything in American
3:58 law except here in the South, which again,
4:02 I accept that we needed some sort of post civil rights settlement
4:07 to force Jim Crow states to basically not discriminate against black people.
4:12 But I'm living in a world where
4:13 Georgia has two Democratic senators after our Democratic
4:16 president just said that they were enact enacting new Jim Crow as of 2022,
4:21 which obviously is and incendiary.
4:24 So, I don't know.
4:25 Like I look, maybe a lot of liberals would get mad at me,
4:27 but like at the spirit of the law, it's just not right.
4:30 And especially whenever you're looking at what Virginia just did,
4:33 you're all celebrating over that when
4:34 you don't care about minority representation.
4:36 The Virginia The Virginia is direct retaliation for what was done in Texas.
4:40 But that's what I'm saying is that everybody,
4:42 nobody gives a about minority representation whenever it comes to their side.
4:46 It's only here because they're like, "Oh,
4:48 because of a historic black population."
4:50 But if you can't prove explicit racial discrimination,
4:53 like you can't just assume it.
4:55 It's very difficult, I think, to prove explicit discrimination,
4:58 which is why this was crafted the way that it was.
5:00 I mean, I think you and I probably have a different view of how prominent
5:04 and significant racism against black Americans in particular
5:08 still continues to be and especially in the south,
5:10 which is probably why we come down in a different place.
5:13 Um, I see your point though.
5:14 I mean, one thing I will say is that
5:17 the way that these districts operate is you
5:19 end up with these very like machine um,
5:23 you know, black politicians that are very, you know,
5:26 the Jim Klyurns of the world that are very
5:28 like dedicated to the party apparatus and never step outside
5:32 of that and tend to be some of the um
5:35 most significant enforcers of like the procorporate status quo inadmic caucus,
5:43 which is, you know, very unfortunate.
5:44 I will say though that, you know, I think to to wipe out effectively all
5:49 black representation in the South is like I yes,
5:53 I oppose that and I think that that is I think that is a setback.
5:56 Didn't you support the Virginia thing?
5:57 You just wiped out Republican support in Virginia.
6:00 We literally live in an occupied state now.
6:02 If you have like No, it's true.
6:04 I mean, we're going in the same direction of California.
6:07 There is no one cares about Republicans in California.
6:08 There is no doubt that we are in like just a total
6:11 race to the bottom in terms and that was kicked off by Trump.
6:14 I mean that was look escalated by Trump.
6:16 I shouldn't say it's kicked off by Trump.
6:18 Now I will also say Democrats have offered
6:21 a nationwide anti-jerrymandering law that Republicans are opposed to.
6:27 So you know happy to pass that legislation
6:30 and have fair districts drawn across the country.
6:32 And I absolutely think that that would be a better result overall and guarantee
6:36 that you know that all groups re receive
6:38 the level of representation that they should have.
6:40 But no, I mean on the merits do I think this was
6:43 a positive decision in terms of dem
6:46 small D democratic representation in the country?
6:48 No, I do not.
6:49 But see, that's where I have to disagree.
6:50 Like the idea of dilution in and of itself
6:53 that some one district just because they are black,
6:56 they deserve a special carveout,
6:58 it does not apply to anybody else in the whole nation.
7:01 It's an explicit because there because we have an explicit history
7:05 in the country soccer that continues to loom large over our politics.
7:10 And then why do you support affirmative action?
7:12 It's been 61 years.
7:13 We don't have these explicit racial carveouts anymore.
7:15 We are trying to have live up to the spirit of equal protection.
7:18 This is explicitly created and directed at the South,
7:22 which again I totally get back in 1965, but it's 2026.
7:27 If you want to live in a country where you have
7:29 equal protection and application of said law for all racial groups,
7:33 then this directly violates that because now they like
7:36 everybody else have to prove the intention of discrimination.
7:40 And in the same spirit like can I prove
7:43 that Democrats wanted to disenfranchise all the Republicans in Virginia?
7:48 I mean honestly probably at this point I mean but they don't care.
7:52 Like that's what I'm saying.
7:53 They don't care at all.
7:54 So like don't come crying like look I you're
7:57 looking at it in the in the in the what
8:00 is it the in the interim like this race in terms of like this particular race
8:05 in the long run I think I think it's
8:07 a better off decision because it creates the legal
8:10 justification that anybody when you have to prove discrimination
8:15 you have to explicit be able to prove it.
8:17 You and I benefit from this when it comes to defamation law.
8:19 All Americans benefit from this.
8:21 Whenever it comes to I don't know,
8:22 I'm trying to think like anytime you're criminally accused or of anything,
8:25 even whenever it comes to uh like, you know,
8:28 really not from heinous crime to the presumption of innocence.
8:31 It's like a basic bedrock of American society.
8:34 Now, as I've said, I totally understand why in the era of Jim
8:38 Crow that you would want to put something like this in place.
8:41 But when Georgia is a swing state, I'm sorry.
8:43 Which was the capital like the beating heart of Confederate the Confederate
8:49 like you know what's the the lost cause ideology and Senate
8:54 Richard Russell who was the chief opponent and when his predecessors
8:58 are now literal dem one of them is a black Democrat.
9:01 I I just don't buy it anymore.
9:02 Like I just think it's it's a long uh relic.
9:05 And the my final point was on the machine thing.
9:07 And I got into my argument with the father-in-law over this because he was
9:10 talking explicitly about representation like the skin
9:12 color of the person who was representative.
9:14 And I was trying to make this point.
9:15 I said, you know, the Congressional Black Caucus is one
9:18 of the most machine captured and procorporate lobbies in all of Washington.
9:23 This is a well-known fact.
9:25 And it's like, has it really worked out necessarily to the benefit?
9:30 I mean, I understand this like I don't
9:32 need an Indian person to represent my interest.
9:34 my interest or my interest.
9:35 But I would say they are uh much better than a Republican in the same district.
9:41 Okay.
9:40 On the merits in terms of what they will vote
9:42 for and and I at the risk of like repeating myself,
9:45 I just think our difference comes down to, you know,
9:48 you say you can understand why this was put
9:50 in place when it was given the level of racism, etc.
9:54 And I just continue to see a level
9:56 of racism that continues to justify this level
10:00 of protection and see it as a loss
10:02 that black voters throughout the South Raphael Waro.
10:05 Black voters throughout the South are basically going to lose,
10:07 you know, their congressional representation.
10:10 You know, they're going to be living off red lining until 20,200.
10:13 You know, it's just it's one of those where like look,
10:16 we live in an evolving society which everybody
10:18 can understand whenever it comes to social justice,
10:21 but apparently like the sins of a hundred years
10:24 ago are never the sins of a hundred years ago.
10:27 I mean, we've, you know,
10:29 but I think you have to acknowledge like racism is still a real matter.
10:33 You can look at wealth disparities.
10:35 You can look at outcome disparities,
10:37 you know, you can look at health disparities.
10:39 basically anywhere you look in terms of American breaks down some of it
10:43 is class based but some of it is also over racial discrimination and we
10:46 have a long history of that and that doesn't you know it doesn't
10:49 just vanish um over you know it truly in terms of the grand
10:54 scheme of time like a few decades is a very short period of time
10:59 you um just the decade before I was born was all the debates
11:03 about busing and like that's when desegregation was this is very recent
11:07 in terms of a historical scale and the legacy still continues in my opinion.
11:11 So I I I can understand that view and I get how
11:14 it's a you know liberal headline like Voting Rights Act strut down.
11:18 But like I beg you grapple with the points that I made because
11:21 I don't really see I see people hyperventilating about it but absolute refusal
11:26 to apply it to literally any other group which again you don't care
11:30 at all at all about minority representation especially in the wake of Virginia.
11:35 happen to care whenever you can dress it up
11:37 as some sort of like civil rights era cause.
11:40 But that's not how US juristprudence works.
11:43 Like the law explicitly says that we should
11:46 not be discriminated based upon based upon our race
11:49 and to have explicit racial carveouts is just not really
11:52 something that we should have anymore in the year 2026.
11:55 That's why I support the uh Mississippi and other southern states literally
11:58 still celebrate a Confederate Memorial Day.
12:00 So that's where we still are.
12:02 Okay.
12:02 So, I mean I I don't I don't think it's A GOOD THING.
12:05 I KNOW, BUT I'm just saying the notion, oh, these are all colorblind utopia.
12:08 Like, I just think that that is defies the reality
12:11 of what it is like in most of these deeply southern I was raised in the south.
12:14 So, first of all, in literally Confederate uh state,
12:16 so like it's not like I'm not
12:17 exactly familiar with Confederate or Lost Cause ideology.
12:21 However, I've also watched my state go from 1990s like
12:25 you know probably where something like that could have happened
12:27 where now as you just said James Taro is pulling
12:29 in a place where he might win the entire state.
12:32 So Texas Texas is a little bit different than like Mississippi,
12:36 Alabama just in terms of both the demographic makeup
12:39 and also the massive influx of like Californians who've moved to That's fair.
12:42 Yeah.
12:43 Well, you know what I'm saying?
12:43 And Georgia also is has been a beacon for people moving
12:47 in from out of state which really changed the character of the state, right?
12:50 Which is maybe that's the fault of Mississippi
12:51 and Alabama for not becoming a more attractive place.
12:54 I'm joking.
12:55 Okay.
12:55 So, it's one of those where at the end of the day,
12:58 uh what I think is equal application of the law is
13:01 not based on your skin is the most important bedrock principle.
13:04 I think it when it comes to affirmative action
13:06 and I think it whenever it comes to voting rights act.
13:08 Yes, it will uh it will in immediate term it will affect my you know so-called
13:13 minority representation uh in these states but we
13:17 don't do that in literally any other case
13:20 and we should make it so that that is what you strive for across the board
13:24 including yes gerrymandering which obviously many Republicans
13:28 in these states thought would use to their advantage.
13:30 I actually still don't really fully buy, not to just drag this out too much,
13:34 but I still don't fully buy that the gerrymandering,
13:37 even with these seven seats that will go up,
13:39 will still net out in some sort of Republican favor because
13:43 I I think it's still very much uh it's hard to say, right?
13:46 Because I was looking, you know, at approval ratings.
13:48 You know, Clinton had like a 50% approval
13:50 rating and also lost like 52 seats in 1994.
13:54 Trump is at an all-time low bottom.
13:56 So, even in a gerrymandered world,
13:59 I think Democrats are still going to take the House.
14:01 I just think it will be a smaller moment.
14:02 Okay, I see what you're saying.
14:03 All right.
14:04 All right.
14:04 Anyway, I've seen people be like, "Oh my god,
14:06 we're not even going to win now." I'm like,
14:07 "Really?" Like, I I just don't think you're really
14:09 I think it's going to be too big to rig So, that's what I think.
14:12 You know, you might be right.
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